Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Ryan Vows To Have Health Care Platform Ready For Republican Nominee

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says Republicans in Congress will craft a five-point agenda looking at national security, the economy, health care, poverty and the Constitution. In other Capitol Hill news, Rep. John Kline of Minnesota is opening an inquiry over the deaths of drug-dependent newborns.

The New York Times:
Republicans In Congress Will Write 2016 Campaign Platform, Ryan Says
It was unclear, for instance, whether Republicans will actually present a plan to replace the current health care law that has been their central policy punching bag since they took over the House. Republican leaders in the House and Senate demurred on whether they would write and vote on a bill this year. But members were concerned by a presentation of polling data, some Republicans said, that found that while the health care law remained unpopular with many people, Democrats had a double-digit lead over their party on the issue of health care. (Steinhauer and Herszenhorn, 1/15)

Reuters:
House Opens Inquiry Into Deaths Of Drug-Dependent Newborns
The chairman of a U.S. House committee that oversees child abuse issues opened an inquiry Friday into whether the federal government is failing to enforce a law meant to protect thousands of babies born dependent on drugs each year. The inquiry, launched by Representative John Kline of Minnesota, comes in response to a Reuters investigation last month that identified 110 examples of children who were exposed to opioids while in the womb and later died preventable deaths after leaving the hospital. No more than nine states comply with a 2003 law that calls on hospitals to alert social workers whenever a baby is born dependent on drugs, the news agency found. (Schiffman and Wilson, 1/16)

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